1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manual disconnects, and particularly to hermetically sealed manual disconnects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Manually connecting and disconnecting electrical circuits is as old as electrical circuits themselves, and is the way circuits are connected or disconnected if relays or contactors or other electrically operated switches are not used. In high power applications, or where a user needs to be assured that an electrical source is isolated, manually operated disconnects can be used. As voltages and currents have increased in modern day applications like electric vehicles or solar generation, the manual disconnects, if used, need to be very large to be able to practically disconnect higher power loads.
Because of their small size and weight, hermetically sealed disconnects can be used in high power applications, with these conventional sealed disconnects being electrically operated. Users may still want to manually disconnect a disconnect in these high power applications to be assured of the isolation. However, these conventional electrically operated hermetically sealed products do not provide for a manual disconnect option, as it is difficult to provide manual positive operation without compromising the hermetic seal of the disconnect.